PARIS | La Tour De Triangle

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Written by Lee Marshall
Illustrated by Lennard Kok
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I was thirteen years old when I first visited Paris. It was the year of spaghetti straps and butterfly clips (otherwise known as 2000) and I was on a school trip with a group of other English-howling hooligans. At the Louvre, we saw the Mona Lisa, like a postage stamp in the distance, browsed the bric-a-brac at the flea market near the Moulin Rouge, and, of course, took the elevator up the Eiffel Tower. Excuse me. I mean: la Tour Eiffel.

At the top, we snapped countless pictures of the low skyline carved from Lutetian limestone. To help us remember, I suppose. To immortalize that oh-so-special moment we shared with millions of other tourists. The Paris skyline looks practically the very same now as it did then. But that skyline may be about to change.

Paris has approved its first tower in over 40 years: La Tour Triangle. It’s a skyscraper that promises to be nothing like a skyscraper, and in fact, should mostly be invisible if everything goes according to plan.

Herzog and De Meuron, the very same architects behind London’s Tate Modern and Beijing’s ‘Bird’s Nest’ stadium, created the Triangle Project. Ironically, the major selling point for Triangle seems to be the fact that no one will notice it. In artist’s renderings, the glass pyramid is so flat and reflective that it appears almost translucent. What’s more, it is positioned so that it will barely cast a shadow. Essentially this 180-metre structure will be unseen.

You see, Paris has a short but bleak history with tall buildings.

The Eiffel Tower—a 300-metre structure that is now practically synonymous with the city—wasn’t always beloved by Parisians. When construction on Eiffel began for the 1889 World’s Fair, a group of respected artists submitted a petition against the wrought-iron lady. The petition, published in Le Temps on Valentine’s Day, was the ultimate hate letter. It called the Eiffel Tower “monstrous” and “ridiculous.” It said the shadow would be “a blot of ink” on the City of Light.

The Eiffel Tower was the tallest structure in the world for four decades, and to this day, remains the tallest structure in the city. However, where it was once called “barbaric” and “hateful,” it is now a symbol of love and light. After the Paris attacks in November 2015, it also became an international symbol for peace through the emblem created by artist Jean Jullien (and popularized in Facebook profile pictures everywhere.)

For almost a century, Eiffel watched over Paris alone. Then, in 1973, Paris tried to tango with another tall building. This time, it did not end so well. La Tour Montparnasse, an office skyscraper, protrudes from the level cream stone city like a solitary 210-metre smokestack. It took several decades for the Eiffel Tower to win over Parisians, but the Tour Montparnasse never had such luck. It sticks out like a sore brutalist thumb from the classical stone. And it is a major reason why opposition to Triangle exists.

Triangle is almost a decade old but still exists only in drawings. The building has already overcome a lot, but the struggle isn’t completely over; the architects first conceived the design in 2008, but it was cast aside in the wake of the financial crisis. The project was revisited in 2011 only to be shut down by a city council vote in 2014. Miraculously however, the tower was approved for build in the summer of 2015 with construction to begin in 2017.

Opponents of Triangle are certainly not done fighting to preserve the historic Paris skyline. Even if they win and Triangle never pierces the sky, there could soon be another skyscraper sprouting from the horizon. In 2010, city restrictions that limited buildings to a maximum height of 36 metres were lifted for areas outside the city centre.

If they do break ground, Triangle could be the next Montparnasse and send Paris back in time to short building restrictions. Or it could, like Eiffel, usher in a new age